Beni Gabor
Beni Gabor was the guide of a party of treasure-seekers that intended to reach Hamanaptra, the fabled City of the Dead. Biography Beni Gabor, formerly of Budapest, Hungary, was wanted in Hungary for robbing a synagogue, and had apparently robbed more than that before from places of worship. To escape persecution, Beni joined the French Foreign Legion, and in doing so met Rick O'Connell, whom he claimed as a friend during their enlistment with the real intent of having a bodyguard so as not to end up in trouble. Trouble came, however, when a marauding band of Tuaregs came roving to the ruins on horseback, eliminating a number of legionnaires. O'Connell rushed to the ruins to hide from the bullets, but Beni rushed there too, forcing shut a great stone door so that O'Connell could not enter. O'Connell, forced to fight, stood alone and eventually made it back to civilisation. Beni escaped the desert by taking camels of a few dead legionnaires and making it back. Journey to Hamanaptra Beni eventually made his living as the guide of a rowdy team of Americans seeking the City of the Dead, but Beni's idea was simply to take the money given him by the Americans, lead them out into the desert and leave them all to die. The Americans, however, knew better than to do that and decided to pay Beni only half of his commission once they met and the other half once they were safely back in Cairo. At around the beginning of this venture, Beni found himself face-to-face with his old Foreign Legion comrade, Rick O'Connell, who was furious at Beni for his treachery back at the ruins. Beni derided O'Connell for falling for Evelyn, to which O'Connell replied with by picking Beni up by his garments and throwing him straight into the Nile. Later on, Beni made it to the riverbank with the Americans accompanying him. From his side, Beni mockingly pointed out to O'Connell that Beni's team had all the horses, only to have O'Connell point out that Beni was on the wrong side of the river to travel to Hamamptra. Cursing fluently in several languages, Beni made his way on, alongside his American employers. After two days, O'Connell and his group met up once again with Beni and his group, now much larger due to the presence of about three dozen native diggers. To get to the city first meant racing their camels, horses, and occasional mule until either group reached it first, a race which held five hundred dollars to whichever group made it first. At this point, Daniels made a wager with Beni: if he could lead Daniels and the other Americans to the ruins first, one hundred dollars would be given to him; needless to say Beni failed as both groups raced towards the ruins, and Beni lashed out at O'Connell with his camel whip. O'Connell quickly reciprocated by grabbing Beni by the shirt collar and throwing him off his mount, left Beni Gabor in the dust to watch out for the other participants in the race. The race was eventually won by O'Connell's group, winning them five hundred dollars. In Hamanaptra Once camp was set up at the ruins, Beni took his job as guide by accompanying his charges to whichever locale they chose to visit in the ruins. One such locale was the base of the statue form of Anubis, where Beni and his employers, along with a group of native diggers met at gunpoint with O'Connell and his group. Beni pointed out cruelly that there were only four in O'Connell's group and fifteen in Beni's. The other, smaller group beat out, Beni's employers, the Americans, began to inspect the idol and a compartment that seemed to contain something. As one of the Americans, a man named Henderson, was about to pry open the compartment, Dr. Chamberlin, another treasure seeker in their group pointed out that the compartment had hieroglyphs upon it that dared a looter to try prying it open. The suggestion was given to have the diggers open it instead. As soon as three such diggers had opened it, a torrent of pressurised salt acid burst out of the stone, killing the three diggers, a sight which Beni was forced to behold. Later that night, both camps were the host of an attack by the Medjai warriors, a society dedicated for thousands of years to assuring that the evil mummy Imhotep did not arise from his grave. In the ennui, Beni ran for cover and encountered Jonathan Carnahan, who had the late Warden Hassan's bottle of whiskey which he had been drinking. Beni snatched it away and took a swig when he saw some oncoming Medjai, blades raised to attack, and promptly spat it back out in Jonathan's face. Several people, both Medjai as well as on the side of the expeditions, were killed before Ardeth Bay, the leader of the Medjai, declared that no more blood would be shed, but all must leave the City of the Dead or die. This warning only served to convince the members of the American expedition that Seti's treasures really were under the sands. The next morning the Americans seeking the treasure found a wooden chest, engraved with hieroglyphs which Dr. Chamberlin translated as a warning: death befell any that opened the chest. Chamberlin was reluctant to open it, as were the diggers that accompanied them, who promptly ran off in fear. Beni, who was present at the time, also ran off, screaming of the curse. The chest was opened and with it, a great cloud of dust emitted, revealing what lay in the chest: the black Book of the Dead. The three Americans scoffed at the book, claiming that it was worthless while Dr. Chamberlin sat in awe at it. Henderson kicked at the chest in anger and opened a compartment of the chest, where lay four canopic jars, whole, and a fifth shattered jar. As all this took place, O'Connell's expedition found something of their own: a mummy, which was apparently the subject of a curse. The Mummy Awakens Later that night, Evelyn Carnahan regaled all present on the mummy's fate: this mummy was the subject of a curse that condemned him to a pained existence not only in this life, but the next as well, and that if this mummy should ever arise, the ten Plagues of Egypt would come with him. Evelyn decided to prove to O'Connell that there was no curse by reading from the Book of the Dead (which she stole from a sleeping Dr. Chamberlin) the words that would re-animate the mummy. The words worked, and Dr. Chamberlin screamed out at her to not read, but the damage was done. The mummy had been awakened and with him came one plague: a swarm of locusts that befell on all at the ruins. Most of the members of the expedition ran down into the ruins below, among them Burns, who tripped and fell, losing his spectacles, which Beni mistakenly crushed and, making no effort to help Burns, ran off. Beni was separated from the others and ran off trying to find his way out of the ruins, but ran straight into the re-animated mummy himself, now with a set of recently plucked eyes and tongue (torn from the waylaid Burns). Beni stood in fear at this horrid sight and began brandishing several icons of different religions, including a cross, a symbol of Buddhism, a symbol of Israeli belief, and finally a Star of David. The mummy, who was approaching slowly towards Beni about to silence him, recognised the Star of David as the symbol of the slaves. The mummy decided that he might have some use for Beni and that the rewards would be great. The mummy introduced himself as Imhotep and bade Beni tell him where the canopic jars were. Back in Cairo Some three days after the ordeals at Hamanptra, Beni survived and made it back to Hamanaptra, along with Imhotep, who still sought the human victims of his curse. The first that Imhotep came across was Burns, who was without eyes or tongue and thus unable to see who Imhotep truly was. Imhotep reached Burns' quarters in Cairo disguised as an honoured visitor who, informed of the canopic jar's procural, wished to make an offer for it. Burns was pleased that with the money made from the jar he might be able to procure some help back in America, but it was then that Beni revealed all: "Prince" Imhotep thanked Burns for his hospitality and for his eyes and tongue but Beni stated that more was needed, and so Burns was killed as part of the curse, his remaining organs and fluids drained. In Cairo, the Ten Plagues were manifesting themselves as part of the curse, and Beni was running from the residence that Burns was killed in when he was caught by O'Connell, who was about to get some answers from Beni as to what was going on, when Imhotep, who was now on the roof of the building, emitted a roar that signalled his presence, and Beni escaped. Later that day, Beni was rifling through Dr. Chamberlin's office in Cairo for the missing canopic jar and the Book of the Dead, unaware that the professor had run off from his office, taking both artifacts with him, when he was once again approached by O'Connell, who almost caught him, and as Beni made his way for the door, was hit by the professor's office chair that O'Connell had flung single-handedly at Beni. O'Connell demanded that Beni tell him what he would gain from being under Imhotep's service, with Beni replying that it was better to be in the right hand of the Devil than in his path, and that as long as he served Imhotep, he was immune to whatever curses Imhotep would throw. O'Connell demanded that Beni tell him more, but Beni refused, cursing in Hungarian, when O'Connell forced Beni to talk by forcing him close to a ceiling fan, where Beni revealed that Imhotep was after the Book of the Dead, and told Beni that it would be worth its weight in gold. Beni told O'Connell that the book was to revive Imhotep's "dead girlfriend", but that all Imhotep wanted was the book and Evelyn as a sacrifice, and as Beni was about to say more, a bloodcurdling scream of terror sounded outside the office window. As O'Connell, who was accompanied by Jonathan at the time, ran to the window to see what had happened, Beni made good his escape and leapt out the window, leaving O'Connell and Jonathan to see where, or rather, from whom the scream came: it was Dr. Chamberlin, now a skeleton whose life had been taken by Imhotep, as the semi-regenerated mummy removed a canopic jar and the Book of the Dead from Chamberlin's withered grip. As Imhotep continued to regenerate, Beni continued on with his service to the mummy. At the final stages of his occupation of Cairo, Imhotep had placed all of its inhabitants, tourist and native alike, under a spell that would press them all into being his slaves, patrolling the streets for any resistors. Beni resented being among these "zombies", but continued to serve, giving away O'Connell and his group's (consisting of Jonathan Carnahan, Ardeth Bay, Daniels, and Dr. Terence Bey) location once Beni spotted them. O'Connell and his friends barely escaped in Jonathan Carnahan's car, as O'Connell shouted out to Beni that he'd get his, Beni replying that he'd heard that before. The last man that was subject to the curse was Daniels, who fell from the car as it drove off, and was left to shoot at any entranced people that came towards him, Daniels soon running out of bullets. Imhotep calmly strode towards Daniels, who knew that now his time was up, and in a last resort, Daniels showed Imhotep the last canopic jar. Imhotep roared in acknowledgment and proceeded to exsanguinate Daniels, as Beni watched on with cruel glee. Imhotep was regenerated fully at last once he found O'Connell and his friends, and put forth words for Beni to translate: if Evelyn came forward and took her place with him, O'Connell and the others would be spared. Evelyn obliged reluctantly, O'Connell at first being against it, but Rick understood that Evelyn still had to be taken to Hamanaptra for the ritual to take place, and vowed to fight Imhotep again. At that moment, Imhotep went against his word, ordering his mind-controlled slaves to kill the survivors, Beni following his master suit and pick-pocketing Jonathan for the puzzle box before he left. O'Connell, Jonathan, and Ardeth Bay made it out alive as they headed down the sewers to escape, as Dr. Bey fought off the enslaved assailants to the death. Return to Hamanaptra Imhotep headed back to the City of the Dead in the form of a great sandstorm, taking Evelyn and Beni along with him. As Evelyn looked around in despair, she saw a plane in the sky and knew that it must be O'Connell, coming to her rescue. Imhotep saw this and used his great powers to shake the sands from the desert and create another sandstorm, attacking the plane and its riders as Beni watched on with cruel amusement. After it seemed that Imhotep had succeeded and the plane was brought down for good, he proudly strode off, leaving Beni to remark on his approval of the sandstorm. What neither knew was that O'Connell, along with Jonathan and Ardeth Bay had survived and snuck into the ruins. Upon reaching the City of the Dead, Beni rudely ordered Evelyn to keep moving as they went into the catacombs, led by Imhotep, as Evelyn remarked that fellows like himself always got their just desserts in life. This amused Beni for a moment, but he remained on guard. As Imhotep brought his mummified priests back to life and ordered them to kill the rescuers, Beni ran off from Imhotep and Evelyn and reached the chamber for the treasure, giddily laughing at his good fortune. Imhotep had seen O'Connell fighting off his priests and brought forth mummified soldiers to fight O'Connell in a rough battle inside the ritual chamber. As the battle went on, Beni seized his chance to steal as many treasures as he could, loading a satchel of the pilfered gold and jewels onto the camels of the legionnaires that still lingered about the ruins. The gold that he collected, however, did not seem enough and so Beni returned inside, taking more treasures out, not knowing that the battle between Imhotep and his minions and O'Connell was over. While Beni left the treasure chamber with another bag in hand, he placed the already heavy bag onto what seemed like a horizontal column on the wall. The column was actually the lever that would bring the City of the Dead down to its foundations, and so the ruins began to crumble and fall. Death Beni rain as fast as he could with his prize before finally leaving it and running for the exit. As he did, he encountered O'Connell and tried to escape with him, almost succeeding as he made it to a stone doorway, which was soon blocked off by a stone coming from the ceiling, sealing the thief in. As Beni remained in the treasure chamber trapped, a carnivorous scarab beetle emerged on a statue's head and hissed menacingly at Beni, who tried to stave the bug off with his torch. With this, swarms of the scarabs came out to greet Beni while his torch quickly died out, leaving Beni to be eaten by the scarabs in the pitch black darkness. Appearance and Traits Beni Gabor was was motivated by greed and powerful self-preservation, marking some men his "friends" only so that they would be his protection should trouble arise, in which case Beni would often betray them by leaving them to die if the situation allowed. Made honest only by money, Beni was easily tempted by promises of wealth, turning to whichever individual might offer him the most. Along with his greed, Beni was very superstitious and easily frightened, maintaining a belief in more than one God or gods, as he carried various religious icons as pendants on his neck. Beni was a small thin Hungarian man with a pallid complexion, a small thin moustache, stringy build and short stature. Once in the Foreign Legion, Beni wore the garb of his rank as a foot soldier; after this Beni took to wearing a dark pyjama-like garment, with suspenders, sandals, a worn-out neckcloth, and a red fez, which was all accompanied by a purple jacket and green shemagh in some cases. Appearances *Canon **''The Mummy'' **''The Mummy (novelization)'' Behind the Scenes Beni Gabor was portrayed by actor Kevin J. O'Connor. Category:characters Gabor,Beni